If you’re thinking about getting out and doing some boating, this would be a great weekend for it until about Sunday night and into Monday morning. True, winds will be light until Saturday so maybe it’s a good time to go to the Big Seattle Boat Show to kick some hulls and check out the latest gear.
The charts and Sat picture show the reason for all this nice weather which is sort of good news and bad news. The good news is that it’s not rainy, cloudy, gray and cold. The bad news is that we’re not building any snowpack in the mountains. As you can see we’ve got a relatively strong ridge of high pressure over us as noted by the three high-pressure systems. The 1034Mb being right over the Salish Sea with a flanking 1032MB systems to the north and south. Just how strong this ridge is can be seen on the 500MB chart for today. The jetstream (the bold 564 line on the 500MB chart) is being directed into the BC coast north of Haida Gwaii and then east before it goes south into the central US. This will continue for the foreseeable future.
January 25 500MB 
January 25 Surface Analysis 
January 26 Surface Forecast 
January 27 500MB 
Jaunary 27 Surface Forecast
There will be a nice northerly flow over the Salish Sea on Saturday and Sunday however as the high consolidates and moves to the east on Sunday afternoon and into the evening, it will also build. This will bring a strong offshore flow to the North Sound and Straits Sunday night. This will means easterly winds to 30-knots in the Straits and NE winds to 25-knots in the north and central Sound. This will begin to ease on Monday afternoon and into Tuesday, with high-pressure still dominating our weather well into the coming week.
Too bad for the skiers but good for the boaters.
Enjoy the weekend.
I’ll be giving a couple of talks on Marine Weather at the Seattle Boat Show, the first being Saturday night at 1800 hours up on the Club Level at Stage #5. The second will be on Wednesday at 1415 hours at Stage #3 in the North Hall. I will also be at the Information Booth this weekend and the next. If you’re at the Show please stop by and say hello.
Ed. Note: Bruce will be giving weather programs at the Seattle Boat Show tomorrow at 6 pm on Stage 6 and Wednesday, January 30 at 2:15 on Stage 3 in the North Hall. He’ll also be at the NMTA (Northwest Marine Trade Show) booth at various times during the show. Stop by and say hi!
Bruce has raced and cruised the Pacific Northwest his entire life. He earned a Bachelor’s of Science from the University of Washington in Biological Oceanography and learned meteorology “to keep from getting kicked around on the race course.” Bruce spent nearly two decades as Associate Publisher for Northwest Yachting Magazine, retiring in mid-2015, and was the chairman of the board of trustees for the Northwest Marine Trade Association in 2014. (photo of Bruce driving Playstation is a bit dated, but cool)